About Hansen’s Dairy

Hansen’s Dairy is a family-owned dairy farm near Hudson, Iowa. Jay and Jeanne Hansen’s farm has been in the family since Jay’s ancestors immigrated from Germany in 1864. It is designated a Heritage Farm, which means it has been in the same family for more than 150 years. The dairyherd originated in 1953 and was brought onto the land by Jay’s father. Jay and Jeanne raised four sons on the farm, Brent, Brad, Blair, and Blake, as well as a daughter, Lynn. Just like most kids do, they grew up and moved off the farm to begin their own lives.

When all four sons were interested in returning to work on their home farm, the Hansens needed a way to add value to their product so several families could be supported. After extensive research, they decided to process their own milk. In November 2002, creamery construction began, and in February 2004, the firstgallon of non-homogenized whole milk was produced. The product line has grown since then to include skim, 1% and chocolate milk, 20 different flavors of hard ice cream, a soft-serve mix, cheese curds, butter, heavy cream, egg nog and ice cream cakes. Today, we own 175 cows and 190 heifers, all purebred Holsteins registered under the Jaywood prefix. We operate a closed herd and sell our surplus cows. We have mostly Black & White Holsteins but we have a few Red & White Holsteins as well.

Just like Toucan Sam for Froot Loops™ and Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes®, a kangaroo serves as a mascot for Hansen’s Dairy milk. Blake Hansen, one of the farm’s co-owners, loved the kangaroos he saw in Australia and wanted them for pets. Since we had kangaroos on the farm when we started our creamery, it made sense to have an illustrated kangaroo as our official mascot.